Pratham Books launches children stories in four tribal languages

Pratham Books launched the first set of ten books in four tribal languages and four story cards for children at Bakul Foundation in Bhubaneswar this week.Drawing inspiration from the challenges facing tribal education, three organisations, Pratham Books, Ignus-ERG with the support of Berna

Pratham Books launched the first set of ten books in four tribal languages and four story cards for children at Bakul Foundation in Bhubaneswar this week.

Drawing inspiration from the challenges facing tribal education, three organisations, Pratham Books, Ignus-ERG with the support of Bernard van Leer Foundation, held Write workshops with authors speaking Saura, Munda, Kui and Juanga languages. This has led to a unique partnership to publish books for children in these tribal languages.

"This project marks a new chapter in the tenth year of Pratham Books as it is a significant first step in reaching the last child. It also links marginalized cultures with the world of formal education and could well be the beginning of creating a canon of literature for children from the ground up," explains Manisha Chaudhry, head of content development, Pratham Books.

The books are in bilingual format. Using Odia script, they have charming stories for beginner readers drawn from the rich oral tradition of these languages and the illustrations use tribal art with contemporary twist. "This is a very important step for us as it marks the beginning of a journey where a publisher not only publishes in Indian languages but also in languages which don't have a script. We are seeding a new set of readers and showing the way to other publishers to reach a nascent market but which will see exponential growth," says Himanshu Giri, COO, Pratham Books.

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